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While the spotlight shone on stars like Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar) and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn), a host of other filmmakers from around the world enjoyed a little attention of their own recently at AFI Fest. Count Canadian actress and budding producer Kristin Kreuk among them.

Blink, a short directed by AFI grad Rick Rosenthal and one of the first films from Kreuk’s production company, Parvati Creative Inc., screened at the L.A. film fest. Parvati is a joint venture she started with friends Rose Bhura and Allison Mack, who has since left the company.

“The whole idea is that we want to produce film and television and we’re looking at reality-based or factual programming for now but we probably will phase out of it and go into scripted formats,” says Kreuk, our Summer 2005 TORO cover girl.

“I really want to challenge prejudice and areas where we don’t like to look. I like to shine light into areas that we generally don’t want to venture into and I love the exploration of those things.”

It’s a departure from her days as Lana Lang on Smallville. But the seasons spent on the popular sci-fi TV series gave her a good grounding on all aspects of production.

“I say this a lot, but I think it was a really wonderful place for me to grow up and spend my young adult years with people that I really liked and felt really supported by,” says Kreuk of Smallville. “And it was a good place for me to practice and learn how to do it because we got to do some crazy stuff practicing with all different genres and working with lots of different actors.”

Like her character, Kreuk was ready for a change so when Lana left Smallville, she did too. She returned for a few episodes as a guest star in 2008 and since then, has played the title role in Street Fighter: the Legend of Chun Li, had a recurring role on the TV series Chuck and, more recently, is starring in Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, which has yet to secure a Canadian release date.

In Ecstasy, Kreuk plays Heather, a young woman who gets caught up in the drug world after falling for a man as she tries to inject some excitement into an otherwise boring life. It was an independent production that she couldn’t resist.

“I love the indie, lower budget format,” she says. “This is a generalization, but on set, it’s usually really creative because there isn’t a lot of money to go around. So people are always trying to make things work and there’s an energy that goes along with it that I find it really invigorating.”

From the L.A. screening of Blink and various auditions for potential projects, Kreuk headed to Regina where she is currently shooting another indie film. Though, in this case, it's much less serious.

“It’s a small low-fi, sci-fi comedy called Space Milkshake,” says Kreuk with a laugh. “It should be pretty ridiculous. I couldn’t stop giggling when I was reading it.”